Introduce yourself in Bahasa Indonesia

In starting conversation or getting to know someone, it is crucial to introduce yourself in a proper manner. Therefore, this post is to show how you can introduce yourself in Bahasa Indonesia and to recognize when someone is introducing themselves to you.  Let's dive in!

In Bahasa Indonesia, what is the word for know or acquaintance? It is 'Kenal'. From the word kenal, we use this as a noun when introducing ourselves, look at the example below: 

'Halo, perkenalkan, saya Agus.' Hi, let me introduce myself, I am Agus. 

You might know that in Bahasa Indonesia, you will have to add affixes to use the words so it would works as a verb or a noun and that's why in this case from 'kenal' you would use 'per-' and '-kan' to say 'introducing'. What happen if you just use the word 'kenal' as in "Halo, kenal, saya Agus."? This sentence would mean and translate the word 'kenal' as 'know' so it would be as if you are saying "Hello, i know, I am Agus." Still in the same sense, if you wanna ask someone 'do you know her/him?' and this is where you would use just the word kenal. "Apakah kamu kenal dia?" do you know her? and in respond, "Ya, saya kenal dia!" Yes I knew her.

Back to introducing yourself, so you would use the word 'perkenalkan' to introduce yourself or it can also be someone else, like the example below: 

        'Hai, perkenalkan, ini Amanda. Dia adik saya.' Hi, let me introduce, this is Amanda. She's my little sister.

You can also shorten 'perkenalkan' to just 'kenalkan' (as most Indonesian like to drop the suffix).  It will work the same way. Example: 

        'Nina, kenalkan, ini Rico.' Nina, let me introduce, this Rico.

Okay - so now you know how to introduce yourself in Bahasa Indonesia using the word kenal, it is time to say further than just kenal. How would you respond when someone introduce themselves to your or someone is introducing someone else to you or vice versa?  We can use the word that we often hear as 'regard' in Bahasa Indonesia. Yes, that is the word 'salam'. 

Salam can means regard, though it is also the word of salutation when like in Muslim or Javanese culture, the younger person often do this salutation or salam by taking a hand of the elder and kiss it. This we would say 'salam' and often parents will say to their kids 'Ayo, salam kepada kakek.' But salam also means regard, so after getting to know someone or being acquaintance with someone, we can say "Salam kenal." which equivalent to nice to make your acquaintance. 

After knowing someone's name and you have shake hands while saying "Salam kenal", it is okay to proceed the conversation further by asking where they are from, what do they do, or what their hobbies are!